WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush is to return to the White House from his Texas ranch ahead of schedule Sunday to sign a controversial bill being pushed through Congress in an attempt to prolong the life of a brain-damaged Florida woman, his spokesman said.
"This is about defending life," Scott McClellan said Saturday.
Bush was to have spent the entire weekend at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, but the spokesman said time was of the essence since the woman, 41-year-old Terri Schiavo, had her feeding apparatus removed on Friday.
Republican lawmakers, who hold a majority in Congress, have launched an unprecedented legislative crusade on behalf of Schiavo`s parents and siblings, who have fought to keep the woman alive and take over her care.
"The president intends to sign legislation as quickly as possible once it is passed," McClellan said.
A Florida judge on Friday ordered Schiavo`s feeding tube removed at the request of Michael Schiavo, her husband and guardian, who maintains that she never wanted to be kept alive artificially.
Schiavo was left in a persistent vegetative state, one step better than a coma, after her heart stopped in 1990, inflicting severe brain damage. Experts have said that without food and liquid, she will die in about two weeks.
With their options exhausted in the Florida courts, Schiavo`s parents took their battle to Washington.
House Majority Leader Tom Delay announced Saturday that legislators in the House and Senate had reached a compromise version of legislation that would allow the case to be heard in a federal court for the first time.
"We are confident this compromise will restore nutrition and hydration to Mrs Schiavo as long as that appeal endures," Delay said.
A vote is expected Sunday or Monday after Republican House and Senate leaders invoked emergency powers to call legislators back from their Easter recess to consider the bill.
Bush`s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, has intervened to stop Schiavo`s euthanasia in the past. Her feeding tube had been removed and reattached twice before.
The bill being prepared by Congress applies narrowly to the case of Terri Schiavo but leaves room for Congress to "take a look at other similar cases of people who are incapacitated," Republican Representative Steve King told CNN late Saturday.
"It`s clear to me that Michael Schiavo has a conflict of interest. He has been able to benefit from court settlements and medical malpractise suits in the millions of dollars," King said.
"We need to have a provision to protect the rights of people when there`s a conflict of interest, when they have a guardian that`s not acting in their best interest."
Critics say Congress is setting a dangerous precedent for the federal government to intervene in court decisions and private family matters.
"What we`re seeing here is an unprecedented action on the part of Congress to reach down and interfere with this individual family," said Democratic Representative Earl Blumenauer.
Michael Schiavo, who has a new relationship and children with another woman, earlier rejected a businessman`s offer of one million dollars to let his wife`s parents decide her fate.
"For Congress to come in and interfere in a personal family matter is outrageous," he said Saturday. "They can do it to me, they`ll do it to every person in this country."
Late last week legislators even issued a subpoena for the severely disabled Schiavo and her husband to appear for testimony before Congress, in an attempt to delay the food cutoff.
A Florida judge threw out the subpoena and the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by attorneys for the House of Representatives.
03/20/2005 10:46 GMT